Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

With the dead arts, the forgotten ones, and the old 2007 shows behind us, it is now time to move onto the shows that both began life and ended life in 2008. As usual, I start from the bottom and work my way up…

While we all love anime (we all do, right?) often times we must admit that there is a fair amount of crap amongst all the good stuff. Smart people drop these shows. I don’t. Here’s a rundown of shows that I should have dropped, or shows that just didn’t do it for me, but I finished them against my better judgment.

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I have no idea why I get so compelled to write about mediocre anime as opposed to good anime, so I’ll try to keep this short.

A friend of mine once described Kyouran Kazoku Nikki as a lie. And he was totally right. Right when this show started I was drawn in by the energetic opening sequence, the wacky cast of characters, and the potential for some good humour. However, as the show pushed forward, it kept trying to create stories and character drama– things I most certainly didn’t want in, what I assumed was, a comedy show. Now, I wouldn’t have cared so much about this if the drama portions of this show weren’t so poorly done. It’s hard to write convincing drama in a story that concerns itself with a talking lion, a sushi eating jelly-fish, and a cat-eared loli that claims to be a god. It’s just difficult to take seriously. And it’s not even funny bad, too. It’s just awkward.

Though I will give them credit where credit’s due. I loved the Vitamin-C episode– it was cliche, but worked well for me. The show also got good when it actually focused on being funny, and every scene with Yuuka was pure moe sprinkled gold. Yuuko Gotou’s role as Riachou helped as well.

But for the most part, this whole production was 26 episodes of wasted potential. Nice character designs, though.

Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: Pretty easy to catch up on considering each episode is only three minutes. I watch them in sets of four here and there.
Code Geass R2: Oh lawd.
Golgo 13: ….
Hidamari Sketch x365: This show almost has the best Shinbo opening ever. Almost, since the best Shinbo opening is the second SZS opening. Neko Mimi Mode gets an honorable mention.
Koihime†Musou: Still junk food. Half-way done.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Yuuko Gotou is a butterfly girl. Win.
Macross F: I kind of don’t care anymore. Not like I don’t like it, but eh. Who cares.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Has slipped into being kind-of-sort-of generic, but I don’t care. It’s done well and I’m actually archiving the episodes!
Sekirei: I can enjoy me some tits, too.
Slayers Revolution: Where is it.
Strike Witches: Still the best of the season.
To Love RU: SAIGO NO CHANCE NOW IS THE TIIIIIIIIIIIME. Better than Rosario+Vampire.
World Destruction: Disposable action series. Has Toru Furuya.
Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess no Rondo~: Almost as good as season two. Kind of slipped down into season one level of good.
Zettai Karen Children: Plot’s getting pretty intense.

Birdy is on hold.

Will write about the upcoming season soon. Lots of regular looking stuff.

Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: I’m almost confident that I have not seen an episode within the past month. Oh well.
Code Geass R2: Feeling really Gundam Seed Destiny at this point. The stupidity is actually getting to me now.
Golgo 13: ….
Hidamari Sketch x365: Liking it better than season one, possibly because subs are coming out regularly and the episodes are slightly faster paced.
Koihime†Musou: Junk food anime. Tasty but forgettable.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Fun to watch– a curious mix of serious stories with comedy-like execution.
Macross F: Uh, I have no idea what this show is about anymore, I just like Ranka Lee. Sheryl can die in a fire etc.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: I support anime about hot otaku girlfriends.
Sekirei: My Kanokon for this season– well produced fanservice fluff.
Slayers Revolution: Fun fantasy series– want to get around to the originals eventually.
Strike Witches: DELICIOUS FLAT CHESTS CROTCHES AND PANTIES ALL OVER DEAR GOD BEST OF THE SEASON
Telepathy Shoujo Ran: Ok kids thing. Have three episodes waiting to be watched– if they suck I’ll drop it.
Tetsuwan Birdy Decode: I liked the first two episodes… where’s the rest??
To Love RU: Why can’t THESE types of Jump shows run for 100+ episodes?
World Destruction: Has turned into a surprisingly fun adventure/fantasy series. Completely disposable, but I like it.
Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess no Rondo~: Girls, girls, GIRLS!
Zettai Karen Children: Watching it raw at this point. Hopefully Chihiro will continue on with it now that Deculture has folded.

Dropped Natsume Yuujinchou because it sucked.

Sitting on a bunch of DVDs and manga, too.

Man, so much anime, so little time. I work 40 hours a week, dammit!

Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: Good ol’ cartoons
Code Geass 2: Best part of my week.
Golgo 13: ….
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: I’ve finally accepted the fact that this is not a comedy. It still works, but I like it less than I initially did.
Macross Frontier: Consistently entertaining. Though honestly, I just watch it for Ranka and space fights.
Telepathy Shoujo Ran: lol kids show. Like the psychedelic effects.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann music videos: Entertaining little diversions.
To Love Ru: Wonderfully entertaining boobalicious fun.
Toshokan Sensou: Kind of badly written, but it’s a not-boring IG show.
Zettai Karen Children: It has faults, but it’s just too entertaining to not like.

Waiting for other things to start.

Manga
Read a bunch of stuff. Keroro Gunsou is great and I wish I read it 5 years ago and the Hayate manga is just the anime with more stylized art. Moving on to a vampire triple-play with Blood Alone, Karin and Tsukuyomi.

Liking where the flash is falling in that last pic.

I’d love to put up the Kure-nai poster, but I’m currently in my parents’ house, and the Kure-nai poster is one of a naked seven-year-old taking a bath. I mean, I’m already pushing it with the Kojika and Yotsunoha posters. I also ordered the March Megami from J-List because it had that poster of Kokonoe Rin covered in nothing but chocolate. Won’t be able to put that one up, either.

Original Post

This comic had two possible outcomes: 1) Rets cursing Kurenai for being a lucky bastard or 2) Rets saluting him. I decided to go with 2), since getting a young girl to kiss you on her own accord is pretty impressive. Kurenai didn’t even have to force himself on her! That’s salute-worthy. The art here is slightly better than what it was at first. After some critiques I changed some things the best I could to make it look slightly better. It still looks average, but not as bad. It’s only one drawing, anyway. The next comic, which I already have sketched out, should look pretty good. It’ll make up for all the stinkers from the past couple of weeks. Not sure how funny it is, though…

Oh, Anime Blog Awards happened, and Mistakes of Youth won something in the “People’s Choice” vote. Blogger’s Choice hasn’t been made public yet, but I guess I won that too since last I checked I was 10 votes above whoever was under me. Not sure how deserving I am of any awards, but thanks to all who voted.

I’m three episodes away from the end of Nadesico, and it’s been a decently fun ride. I kind of expected it to go serious after a while, but to my surprise it’s keeping its relatively light tone till the end. I can appreciate why this series is so well loved, but I can’t totally get into it. It’s good, and at points great, but part of what puts me off is just how fast cut and brisk most of the episodes are. The show does however have a great cast of characters who are all filled with personality, actually handles relationships in a mature manner and, despite being pretty light, drives home the “war is hell” message pretty well. I have the movie downloading right now, and I guess I’ll watch that soon. I would buy it, but apparently a used copy of the DVD costs ~$50 and, uh, fuck that.

I’ve finally accepted that Kyouran Kazoku Nikki is not the crazy comedy that I want it to be, despite it doing everything it its power to force me back into thinking that it is in fact a crazy a comedy each time the opening sequences comes on. The show seems more about imparting kind of cheesy morals and lessons onto the viewer while in the guise of a crazy otaku show. That works decently, but it makes me like the show less. It’s still entertaining, but I kind of hoped it’d be above stuff like that and focus more on being a parody show. Oh well, at least Yuuka is still cute with her little pink striped shirt.

More Haruhi 2 news has trickled in. It seems they’re scrapping the “second season” label and instead just treating it as an all-new series. I honestly don’t see the point in noting that, if it’s still going to be based off of the same material. So long as it tops the first one, I’ll be fine. Also, its ed best be amazing.

That’s it for this week. I have a birthday celebration happening today, so I’ll be off to fit in some anime before the festivities begin.

She asked for a kid’s meal… that’s so adorable.

Image stolen from here. Please don’t kill me original artist.

Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: Cat.
Code Gayass R2: Even more over the top! And they said it couldn’t be done…
Golgo 13: Man this is some trashy stuff.
Kanokon: Man this is some trashy stuff. With heart shaped nipple covers.
Kurenai: IT’S GREEEAAAAT. The end of episode 9 was a bit wonky, but this one is still the best.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Liking it less. The episodes seem kind of thrown together and the direction is poor. Maybe it’ll get better.
Macross F: Ranka is still cute. The CG is still good. Story is moving kind of slow, though.
To-LOVE-Ru: Wow, way behind on this one. Still, good harem fun that’s worth catching up on.
Toshokan Sensou: Getting a bit too serious. Still, it’s a Production IG show that’s actually good! They haven’t done that since IGPX (shutupitsagoodshow)
Zettai Karen Children: As good as Kurenai but for totally different reasons. So cute~. The story stuff is silly, but who cares.

Not so current
Nadesico: Kind of got stuck at episode 18. I’m enjoying it, and I can see why it’s an anime staple, but I’m not totally in love. It seems like its obsessed with fitting in AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE into 25 minutes sometimes. I don’t see the genius that dm sees in it yet.

Dropped
Allison and Whatever: Not like I don’t like it, just I noticed I was behind by 3 episodes and didn’t really feel like catching up.

The last episode of Miina is finally subbed. I dropped off at episode 8, so I’ll marathon the last 3 at some point.

Will finish Baccano after this post.

After Nadesico I may watch Planetes since I realized I own it all and haven’t finished it. Whoops.

Original Post

Looking back through the archives, I noticed that I hadn’t even so much as touched upon the issue that is Rosario + Vampire. To atone for this grievous sin, here is a comic which more or less sums up my feelings on the upcoming sequel. I have nothing against fanservice shows, but R+V is a pretty good example of how not to do one. It does get points for Shuuichi Ikeda, though. As far as this comic goes, I’m pretty happy with how the script turned out, and I will admit I was partially influenced by Kaiji when I wrote the punchline. The art is fine– I’m happy with panels 1 and 2, but panel 3 is all too rushed. It looked great in messy sketch form, but not so much when I cleaned it up.

The Ascii Weekly article from a few weeks ago gave the site some pretty decent exposure. I got about 600 more page views that usual and a blog entry! Who knows, maybe I’ll even get a translation deal! (no)

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Hay hay May

Watching
Allison & Lillia: Bit too much “for the family” polish for my tastes. Not sure if I’ll stick with it.
Chi’s Sweet Home: 3 minutes of joy
Code Goose 2: JUST ASS PLANNED hilarity and general madness. Good times.
Golgo 13: ….
Kanokon: I can’t believe it’s not porn!!
Kure-nai: Best of the season. Great animation, great writing, great acting… just perfect.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Second best of the season. Good mix of craziness and drama. Fuka is too cute. Love abused lolis.
Macross F: Third best, I guess. Not much of a Macross fan, but this is good enough. Nice space battles and nyannyan dances.
To-LOVE-Ru: Guilty pleasure show of the season. I love it.
Toshokan Sensou: A good Production IG show?? And they said it couldn’t be done…
Zettai Karen Children: Decent fluff. Can’t really get past the hay 1990s art style, though.

Finishing Dennou Coil tomorrow. It is a good show.

Reading
Gunslinger Girl: Makes me want to watch the anime again. Great stuff.

Read some Ichinensei ni Nacchattara. It’s good.

I watched all these a couple of days ago so these aren’t immediate reactions like the last few posts.

Kamen no Maid Guy

This was a real disappointment. I expected quality gags in the vein of Hayate, but instead I got some really badly designed and poorly scripted bunk. All this show has going for it is boobs, and even those are poorly done. I’m sure there’s an audience out there for this stuff, though– the same audience that loved Magikano, probably.

Golgo 13

Japan’s number 1 stone cold killer finally makes his way onto the small screen after 40+ years of being mostly restricted to the pages of his 140+ volumes of manga. None of this stuff is really original, but it’s proper no-nonsense Adult Anime, and the medium could probably do with more of it. People have been complaining that the animation is stiff– while it is, it doesn’t really bother me. When stuff actually needs to move, it moves well, and the scenes with little to no movement don’t really feel cheap. The production is about as good as your average Death Note epsiode, which is to say pretty good. There’s going to be 50 episodes of this, so I hope the subbers can keep up/don’t loose interest.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki

This show almost has my favourite character designs of the season if it wasn’t for Kure-nai and Kanokon. Fuka especially is quite fuckable. That stuff aside, the first episode of this show is humour scenes mixed with trying-to-be-serious-but-this-is-not-a-serious-show scenes. This one has potential to be real fun, but the final shot of episode 1 coupled with the small bits of “seriousness” sprinkled throughout this episode make me worry that it’ll take its silly self seriously. Kyouko, the main girl, is the kind of character I don’t really like, but she’s cute enough so that’s all well and good. I’ll probably be keeping up with this one.

And that’s it for this series of posts. There are still a few other shows I’ve seen and want to see, but the spring rush is pretty much over now. Hope you all chose your spring viewing wisely!